PR 7

Katie Bomar
3.7.11
English IV AP
Jernigan

Poetry Response: “Morning” by Billy Collins

Collins rambles on with descriptions of the morning in order to glorify what he views as the best time of the day. In fact, he questions in the opening line, “Why do we bother with the rest of the day?” His aim is to exalt sunrise as the superlative time of day. To back up his affection for the morning, he describes what he considers to be some of the appealing aspects of this time of day. Collins touches on many of the senses to set the scene of a typical sunup by depicting “the notorious perfume” of the night and the “feet on the cold floor.” He continues relaying the way the morning feels by describing “the splash of water on the face.” The reader can identify with these common practices that are reminiscent of daybreak.

Breaking from the theme of early morning descriptions, Collins continues his wistful tone but pauses to describe the “swale of the afternoon,/ the sudden dip into evening.” Then, extending his morning praise, Collins utilizes repetition when he illustrates twice, “buzzing around the house on espresso.” The image of coffee is one that is universally associated with waking up at dawn. Collins draws his reader in by relating many of the images, smells, sights and sounds that correlate with morning.

Collins employs free verse with no rhyme scheme in order to mimic the carefree nature of beginning a new day at sunrise. His tone shifts from dreamy and poetic in the first two stanzas to busy and commonplace in the next three stanzas, then back again to wistful and lyrical in the final stanza. Collins closes with a simile that compares the steaming lawn to a horse. He presents a stimulating argument for the supremacy of the morning over all other times of day with his tone, descriptions, and figurative language.